1965 Rounds 5-7
Australia

Round Five: WARWICK FARM

Sydney Grand Prix

Date: 14th February 1965

45 Laps of 3.621kms (162.945kms)

The first round in Australia, at
Warwick Farm, opened with a sensational private practice session on the Friday
in which Matich, Clark and Graham Hill all got below 1m 35s compared with the
standing lap record of 1m 37.2s. McLaren and Phil Hill experimented with 13 inch
tyres on the front, while Brabham found he was faster on Dunlops than the
Goodyears on which he had to race. Levis shunted his black Brabham late in
practice, and Leo Geoghegan battled on with what was thought to be influenza but
which turned out to be pneumonia.

The start was dynamic, with Matich
out-accelerating Clark and Hill, who passed him into Creek Corner. Clark lost
third gear on lap 3, but stayed in second place with Matich third. Brabham
passed Matich on lap 9, and by this time Davison, Phil Hill and McLaren had
retired. Cusack, Geoghegan and Levis staged a fine fight back in the field, and
Gardner retired on lap 26. This left Clark and Brabham chasing Hill, with Matich
fourth and Stillwell fifth. Clark passed Hill on lap 34 as Brabham slowed
markedly as his tyres wore down. Matich closed rapidly on Brabham, but was still
eight seconds behind as the leaders started their last lap. Then Hill spun on
Polo, and Brabham, Matich and Stillwell filed through to put Hill back into
fifth place.

Frank Matich leading Graham Hill, Jim Clark
and Bruce McLaren into the first corner at Warwick Farm.

Sandown, tragically, was marred by the death of maestro
Lex Davison in practice. Jack Brabham, with new "sticky" Goodyears hot from the moulds, took
out his third Sandown Cup to the enormous enthusiasm of a partisan crowd. He won
50 bottles of champagne for putting up pole position lap of 1m 8.8s. The Gardner
Brabham failed to arrive for practice after being damaged in a trailer accident
on the trip down from Sydney.

Graham Hill's car had been fluffing badly with magneto
trouble, but McLaren and Phil Hill were very happy with their new 13 inch
hand-cut ultra-low profile Firestones. Matich got off the line ahead of Clark
again, but the Scot nipped in front of him going into Shell Corner. Then
Brabham, McLaren, Phil Hill and finally Graham Hill got by Matich, and on lap 7,
Brabham shot by Clark on the back straight. Matich stopped on lap 8 with a
broken rotor button, and the race settled into three distinct fights, Brabham
and Clark for the lead, the two Hills, McLaren and Stillwell for another, and
the third between Gardner and Palmer. Stillwell, driving exceptionally well,
passed the two Coopers into fourth and moved into third when Graham Hill retired
on lap 35. Clark had led for four brief laps before being pushed back to second
place, and on lap 38 Stillwell's car started to misfire badly with magneto
trouble. Phil Hill went up to third, McLaren slowed with heat fatigue, and Jack
Brabham continued to lead, taking the race by 4.6 seconds.

Longford saw the McLaren cars come resoundingly into their
own with good short-stroke engines and the small frontal area and shallow tread
of the Firestones on this ultra-fast circuit. McLaren and Brabham staged a
thrilling battle for pole position and 100 bottles of champagne on the Friday,
with McLaren finally making it with a shattering 2m 18.5s lap. McLaren won the
10 lap qualifier on the Saturday from Brabham and Graham Hill and lap times from
this set the grid for the Grand Prix.

From the start, McLaren was first away, joined by Graham
Hill on the outside. Brabham came between them and soon edged ahead of Hill.
Clark, Matich, Stillwell and Phil Hill all followed very closely behind. This
group soon pulled away from Levis, Jane and Scott, with Tresise behind,
beginning to get the Cooper-Climax wound up ready to find a way past the smaller
cars. Jane moved past Levis, then, as they passed the pits, Tresise moved out to
take Levis as well. As he did, the Cooper went out of control, crashing through
a fence, killing the young driver immediately.

After three laps, McLaren led from Brabham, Hill and
Clark, who was suffering from a miss-fire under full revs. This allowed Phil
Hill to pass him. By the end of four laps, Grant, Jane and Archer were all out.
Clark got back in front of Hill, only to be re-passed again. This occurrence was
to take place numerous times throughout the race. Just before half distance, the
front suspension collapsed on Matich's car and he was lucky to be able to keep
the car under control until bringing it to a stop.

As Brabham was passing Levis, going into Mountford corner,
Levis suffered a brake lock up and connected with Brabhams wheel. As a
precautionary check, Brabham called into the pits, and returned to the race back
in fifth position, just ahead of Stillwell, but behind McLaren, Graham Hill,
Phil Hill and Clark.

Brabham began recording record shattering laps in his
endeavour to regain his spot. McLaren responded and on lap 17 set a new record
time of 2m 18.4s. With nine laps remaining, everyone sensed the urgency as
Brabham began to appear in their mirrors. Jack passed Clark and was now right
behind Phil Hill. Jack passed Phil, but was immediately re-passed by Phil, who
set a new record lap of 2m 18.2s in doing so. Jack responded once more and
passed Phil with a new lap record of 2m 18.0s, a time that was never ever beaten
on the Longford track.

Meanwhile up at the front, McLaren was having clutch
trouble and his lap times began to drop. Phil Hill wasn't finished yet and
needing to help defend his team leaders position, he once again took Brabham and
followed this by passing Graham Hill as well. Brabham also took Graham Hill and
with three laps to go, McLaren was holding on, with Phil Hill trying to hold off
Brabham. This he could not do and Brabham was now in second. McLaren was
changing gears without a clutch and survived to win by only 3.3 seconds. This
must surely go down as one of the best Australian Grand Prixs ever.